AURA, one of South Africa’s leading security and medical response marketplaces, has appointed David Myers as its COO. Previously a GM and Regional Operations Lead at Uber for Europe, Middle East & Africa, Myers brings with him decades of experience that will stand him in perfect stead for this position, according to a statement from…
Twitter has been steadily updating its rebuilt API following its mid-2020 relaunch. Most recently, the company added support for Twitter Spaces to its developer platform. Today, it’s announcing support that will enable developers to build better Twitter bots by launching new end points that allow you to tweet, delete tweets, post polls, use Reply settings and tag people in images….
An innovation incubation centre funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) has been launched at the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI) at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, aimed at promoting innovation development, market linkages, and technology transfer. The PAUSTI Incubation Centre of Excellence has been set up…
After Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its engagement with the metaverse, Microsoft too is gearing up to launch its own version, which is likely to focus on the corporate world. Speaking about the metaverse, a space where digital avatars of people interact at work and play, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that…
Microsoft is bringing back Google Wave, the doomed real-time messaging and collaboration platform Google launched in 2009 and prematurely shuttered in 2010. Maybe we should’ve seen this coming. Back in 2019, Microsoft announced the Fluid Framework (not to be confused with the Fluent design system). The idea here was nothing short of trying to re-invent the nature of business documents…
The Femtech Accelerator Program, launched by Organon and Flat6Labs, aims to help female-founded digital health start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) flourish by assisting them in developing products, determining market fit, and improving business models. Organon, a global healthcare company with the mission of making every woman’s day better and healthier, has…
The Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria (ISSAN) has expressed worry about Nigeria’s leading role in online fraud in Africa. ISSAN, which claimed that some $2 trillion was at risk, said all efforts must be harnessed to correct the menace. The President of ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe, who disclosed this at a webinar, organised by the…
Airtel Africa and UNICEF have announced a new five-year pan-African partnership to help accelerate the roll-out of digital learning through connecting schools to the internet and ensuring free access to learning platforms across 13 countries. Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services in Africa, is the first African private sector partner…
Online giant Google and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani opened advance orders in India on Monday for an entry-level smartphone billed as the world’s most affordable, joining the race to tap into the booming budget market. Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance Industries announced in July last year that it would partner with Google to launch the 4G…
From October 12 to 28, more than 500 high school students from underserved communities of Agege, Alimosho and Ifako-Ijaiye in Lagos Education District 1, participated in a series of STEM workshops sponsored by the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos. During the workshops, the students learned how to build, program, and fly drones, computer coding, solar panel assembly,…
eNaira is more or less like a digital version of the physical Naira. It is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and will exchange 1:1 to the physical Naira. The eNaira was launched by Nigeria’s President flanked by the VP and CBN Governor on October 25, 2021…
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s message about Instagram’s impact on teenage girls was unequivocal: Facebook’s studies found that 13% of British teens said Instagram prompted thoughts of suicide, and 17% of teen girls say Instagram makes eating disorders worse. These statistics, however, are only one part of the bigger picture when it comes to the general safety of…
The Federal Government has approved the extension of the deadline for National Identity Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) data verification to “the end of the year 2021”. This is according to a recent statement by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) . This is coming just 3 months after the last extension and barely a day to the expiration of…
Generation Z is rapidly stepping onto the world stage. They are graduating from high school, entering the workforce, and studying at tertiary education institutions. Referred to as digital natives, this generation grew up with technology and has no knowledge of life without it. They are globally connected, incredibly mobile, entrepreneurial, and crave autonomy – especially…
Apple lost its crown as the world’s most valuable public company to Microsoft on Friday, as the iPhone maker’s shares fell about 2 percent. Apple took a $6 billion hit to its sales during the fiscal fourth quarter due to persistent global supply chain problems, leading to a miss on Wall Street expectations. Top boss Tim…
During Facebook’s Connect 2021 conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be renamed from “Facebook” to “Meta,” and according to a statement from the firm, “Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” More specifically, the company’s new name is “Meta Platforms…
Facebook on Thursday announced it was changing the parent company’s name to “Meta.” Following the move, many people saw the rebranding exercise as an excuse to have a go at the social media giant. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was among them. He suggested that the new name of the company was confusing and it was…
Forty inclusive businesses from across Africa have been selected for the Social and Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC), a yearly acceleration programme designed to help the most promising high-impact African entrepreneurs scale up their businesses. The SIBC aims to support entrepreneurs and create long-lasting connections with a wide range of ecosystem stakeholders through innovative training sessions…
About 20 million Nigerians are at risk of losing their telecommunication lines as the Federal Government’s October 31st deadline for the linkage of the National Identity Number, NIN, and the Subscriber Identity Module, SIM linkage draws closer. This is even as the FG, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Communications and…
Elon Musk may soon become the first person with a net worth of $300 billion. The Tesla CEO and world’s richest man added more than $36 billion to his fortune on Monday after the automaker’s shares spiked 12.7% following the announcement that Hertz is ordering 100,000 vehicles to build out its electric vehicle rental fleet by the…
Social Media platform, Facebook and Comic Republic have announced the launch of #NoFalseNewsZone online comic book, an educational comic series designed to help people think critically about the messages they see and read online. The series helps readers to identify false news and what they can do to help minimise its spread. The online comic…
Less than 48 hours after its official launch by President Muhammadu Buhari, the individual wallet for eNaira has recorded more than 100,000 thousand downloads on Google Playstore alone. Apple’s App Store does not readily show an estimate of downloads. The Nigerian official Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) was initially scheduled for launch on October 1…
Local media in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum are reporting that internet services across the region have been interrupted, with many outright stating that the internet is down. This is after reports that Sudan’s military seized power during a coup on Monday, arresting members of a transitional pro-democracy government that itself overthrew the long-ruling autocrat…
Spanning 54 countries, Africa is a powerhouse in the world of natural resources and innovation. Resources like diamonds, sugar, gold, uranium, silver, oil, and petroleum famously make Africa and investments in Africa very lucrative. Oil being an invaluable commodity, its production puts countries like Nigeria and Egypt at the top in terms of Gross Domestic…
Mastercard has appointed Gabriel Swanepoel as the new Country Manager for Mastercard in South Africa. This serves as a promotion from his current role as the VP of Business Integration for Mastercard, Southern Africa. As country manager, Swanepoel is responsible for further driving the company’s strategic vision, innovation and growth agenda, and building on its…
Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), the Lagos-based hub, accelerator and investor that has been expanding across Africa of late, has launched its new Seedr programme, the first edition of which will take place in Namibia. CcHub has been on an expansion charge in the last couple of years , and now claims to be the “largest innovation…
South African online student accommodation marketplace DigsConnect has entered into an agreement with the world’s largest student accommodation site, Student.com, enabling the startup to expand its presence to approximately 30 new countries and 400 new cities in the next six months. Launched in 2018, the DigsConnect platform allows landlords, estate agents and property managers to post their property…
After two years of operation, DHL Africa is shutting down its pan-African online retail platform, e-Shop, at the end of the month. “We are no longer accepting orders and this service will be closed effective October 30th, 2021. All orders in process will be shipped or refunded. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused,” a…
Nigeria on Monday became the first African nation to launch a digital currency – the eNaira – a move its leaders said will expand access to banking, enable more remittances and even grow the economy by billions of dollars. Africa’s most populous nation joins the Bahamas, the first to launch a general purpose central bank…
Google has today launched the Global Initiative for Excellence in Journalism Education to enhance journalists’ training in Africa. The announcement was made during the inaugural Google News Initiative (GNI) for Africa virtual event that started on Monday 25 October 2021 and will end on Friday 29th October 2021. The initiative to support journalism training will…